Thank you everybody for joining us.

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Okay.

So um the first item on the agenda is board introductions.

But basically, it is um as we introduce ourselves, if you could please share a little bit about yourself, your background, and um identify any specific segment of the community you feel most connected to or responsible for representing in these discussions.

Hi everyone, my name is Terry Lumsden.

Um I grew up in the mountains of Idaho, Central Idaho in Southwest Montana.

Go Dylan Beers.

Yay.

Um I am a grizzly as well.

Um I've called Northwest Bozeman my home for the last decade.

Um and my career has been rooted in the business side of health care.

Um I did take about a five-year sabbatical and recently re-entered the field.

Um so between my work, my husband's role as a clinician at Bozeman Health, my daughter who is a senior at Gallatin High.

Um, I stay pretty plugged into the local health care business and school systems.

I'm also the incoming president for Bozeman Sunrise Rotary Club, where I have benefit, benefited from being just part of a diverse group of people that I consider friends.

When I'm not working, you'll find me outside with my family and my Springer Spaniels because I am a daughter of a four stranger.

So that's going to come full circuit circle here.

But it's the natural world that brings people here to live and work.

So I call it the mountain tax.

I gladly pay my mountain tax to live here, buy all the equipment to go play.

So yeah, a fun tidbit.

Two young Canadian men told me girls could not snowboard.

I promptly proved them wrong, and umfficially I was the first um snowboard instructor in the state of Montana.

I was not certified, so technically somebody in Big Sky beat me out.

Thank you.

Joe, I'll call on you next.

Okay.

Good evening.

My name is Joe Cartwright.

I have lived in Bozeman for about 25 or 26 years.

I live in town on South Side Park.

I have three girls.

Two of them live here with grandchildren, and one lives in Salt Lake.

My background is real estate development, and I've owned a variety of properties here in town.

But the reason that I'm here is I spend since I live on the park.

I observe a lot of what's going on with the parks and appreciate the value of the trees and the vegetation and parks that we have.

I have opinions about how things should be with a history of running my own businesses.

But I think we have a great parks department.

And equally important coming from other cities that have high taxes and low services.

I think we have a good deal here in Bozeman.

I know everybody likes to complain about taxes, but our services are superb.

I'm Page.

I've recently switched into accounting, much less exciting.

But seeing how valuable the outdoors are as a space for people to learn and grow and connect and finding ways to have that in your town instead of having to go far to find those experiences, I think is important and valuable.

And I want to support our town in having those spaces for people.

Hello.

I'm another transplant.

I came here from Virginia where I went to school, but I grew up in Illinois.

I'm actually flying home tomorrow morning to see my parents.

And I've been hearing a whole lot about how I'm not ready for how cold it's gonna be there because they like to keep an eye on our weather.

It's gonna be like negative.

So anyway.

Left that profession for reasons you can probably guess.

And I studied earth science as well.

Now I work at the HRDC and energy programs.

And so I think the perspective I want to bring to this board is helping people learn and like build a sense of identity from the world around them.

I think there's a lot we can learn just from the plants and the animals that live here that sustain us.

I've done a lot of work at the community garden down at Story Mill.

And so yeah, I think just um, you know, using the land around us as a resource, helping people learn to identify with it and love it and want to protect it.

Um, I think are things that are really important.

So yeah, I'm excited.

Yeah.

I'm Sally Schrank.

Um prior to moving to Montana in my mid-20s, I lived in 10 different states, and I've been in Bozeman for 15 years.

And so I consider this my home.

Really one of the few homes I've ever had for more than two or three years.

So great to be here.

Um, I have two sons who are in their early 20s.

They do not live in the state.

Um, but hopefully they'll move back someday.

They're they're in uh college and graduate programs.

Um I've volunteered in the community in the school system, in the arts, in conservation.

Um I'm a trained fish biologist, but I currently work in conservation on wildlife and public lands policy.

Um I love to hike and bike and run and ski and play on most of the playgrounds in Bozeman.

So I'm I'm excited to start thinking about what that means for the community and how we can provide spaces for people to play and find joy.

Um funny fact about me, my favorite tree is a western red cedar, and mostly that's because the scientific name is Theoya Placata, which sounds like akuna matata, so there's a lot of fun in that word.

So that's me.

Hi, um I'm Steve Lowry.

Um I have I moved from Southern Minnesota uh 21 years ago.

Um so I've now lived in Bozeman longer than anywhere else.

Um so it's definitely home.

Um my wife and I live over on 27th near Rose Park, um, kind of on the west side of town, but it's becoming sort of the center of town as things expand.

Um I I work for Obos Footwear.

Um in town, I've worked there for 11 years.

Um, one of the things that um really attracted me to that organization was the fact that we train a plea, plant a tree for every pair sold.

Um, and that kind of connection with tree planting led to a lot of engagement with um the city's parks projects, um, engagement with GBLT and trails and just getting outside.

So through that experience, I kind of wanted to bring more of that community engagement and getting businesses involved in some of these parks projects.

Um I think it's a really great way for organizations to give back to the community.

Um I guess fun fact, uh I I mean, formerly before I worked at Oboes, I was very much a ski bomb in town and spent 24 months straight skiing within an hour drive of Bozeman back when it snowed a little bit more.

Um but yeah, um, you know, having been here for that long, it's been really interesting watching the expansion of town and that we it's great that we create green spaces with all of the new developments.

Really want to see that continue, see the trail network be connected and keep that going for the next generation.

Um thanks, Terry, for the prompt of these uh some introductions.

This is fun.

I don't know if I remember us doing this two years ago.

Um my name is Joy Morrison.

I'm I'm the mayor of the city of Bozeman, and your outgoing commission liaison.

Um to my right is Commissioner Alison Sweeney.

She'll be serving as the liaison going forward, but I wanted to be here to one, just to thank you all for some of you who have gotten to serve with for the last couple years, but a lot of new folks and really excited for for your service and your commitment to this community.

This is a fun board that gets to cover a lot of really fun topics, gets to opine and participate in some really cool um grant programs and feedback sessions on tree planting areas and things like that.

Cool things that you'll get to do over your over the course of your term.

And you'll have a great liaison in Commissioner Sweeney.

Montana for all 30 years of my life, my short life on this earth so far.

And it's funny how often I like have to say something about myself that I feel like I should have like a fun fact loaded at all times, but I really don't.

So I I think I'm a little exhausted of talking about myself.

And so the maybe the one fun fact, this feels weird for this to be like the first public place that I say this.

Um my partner and I just got engaged um a few days ago trying it out after eight and a half years.

We've decided decided might as well, you know.

Um and uh yeah, just really excited to um take another step in our lives together in this town that we love.

Um but yeah, I'm really uh excited about the the future of the board and and this great commissioner that you guys have.

And uh, but yeah, I'll miss getting to talk about our street trees and those types of things.

But thank you all again for um deciding to commit this time to this community.

Hi, um really happy to be here with all of you.

I was really excited when I got this board assignment because of um potentially the urban forestry master plan um update.

So we've got some really juicy work to sink our teeth into.

Um I grew up here um, descended from the Monforton family, so uh been around for a while, and yeah, planted seven fruit trees on my property, um, a beekeeper and a jeweler, though uh don't know how much jewelry I'll be making in the next four years.

We'll see.

But anyway, um, yeah, really excited to be here with you guys to meet all of you.

I actually grew up learned how to um play T ball and ice skate at Southside Park.

So it's a favorite.

But all the parks are fabulous.

Um, I actually don't have a park in my neighborhood.

Um I live in it's called the Jant neighborhood, so it's between 11th and 15th and college and main street.

And when it was being developed the after World War II, the developer tried to give the city a block for a park, and he owed a bunch of back taxes on it.

So the city said, you know what?

Thanks, but no thanks.

So lots of green space up at MSU, and we usually go to Cooper Park too.

So anyway, excited about yeah, parks in the urban environment.

Um, because sometimes you don't get to take the whole day and go off to the Ski Hill, you just have whatever quick jaunt to your green space.

So thanks.

Yay.

Um yeah, I'm Addie Jaden.

I'm the park planning and development manager.

Um Mitch and the other supervisors are on a retreat, and um their work is a little different from mine because they manage shift workers and seasonal employees and things like that.

So it was hard to bridge and bring me into that.

So unfortunately, um I didn't go to with them, but um it's fun to be here and do this ethics training.

We'll try to make it exciting tonight.

But um I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

So similarly grew up with uh maple tree canopy.

You know, you had to cut down trees to make a soccer field, that kind of thing.

My my neighborhood park was a community park where I learned how to swim, play soccer.

We went sledding there.

I got to go, and there were there was arts programming in the building um by the playground, and then I went to school for art and architecture in um The Twin Cities at the University of Minnesota.

Um was awesome during uh landscaping class to all of a sudden have these slides coming up and thinking, man, that looks like the parks at home.

And apparently Green Bay is known for having this amazing shade tree canopy over all of its playgrounds.

So I didn't know we were, you know, notorious.

And you know, had that going for us.

So that's something I also think about and Alex has been thinking about a lot.

I guess my fun fact, um, I recently did a training where we learned our personality colors and kind of our modality of how we see the world.

And um this has happened to me several times with all different types of these personality tests.

I am never one thing very strong.

I'm always like kind of right in the middle.

And so I've been like, well, you know, that kind of makes sense, and it can be frustrating because I've got like a lot of voices going on.

Um, but I also have learned to think of it as a strength.

Like I can relate to a lot of different people, and I have can handle different parts of my job, but it's like a light goes on and off because it's like I'm full-on in this spreadsheet right now, right?

And then you gotta turn that off, and then you're like in your more relatable hat, and um, yeah, so anyway, that's something about me that I'm I've recently learned more about, and um well, I'll maybe while I'm presenting to you this year, I'll tell you what hat I'm wearing.

But um, but yeah, another really meaty thing we get to do this year um that you'll see a lot of me with is implementing the Parks Rec in Active Transportation Plan into our code, into the city code.

So that's the way it's been um working is about 20 years old, a little less, and the Pratt plan has changed you know some of our perspective on that, and just the city's growing up, and we're seeing how development's playing out.

So we'll be able to just tweak here and there um and work with the commission.

So that'll be another opportunity where I'll be seeing you a handful of times this year.

So we're looking forward to that.

Yeah, thanks.

Great, thank you.

And I've never known somebody who has been personality type as a rainbow.

Yeah.

There we go.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, so it looks like the next agenda item is approval of the minutes for the December 18th.

Um parks board meeting.

I will need a motion to approve and a second from I make a motion to approve the minutes from last board meeting.

I second.

Thank you.

And I think we do a roll call now, right?

Yes.

Uh well, minutes approved.

Minutes approved.

May I ask a question?

I if we weren't at the meeting, can we approve minutes?

So in the past, um, like on the inner neighborhood council, if someone didn't attend, they are allowed to abstain.

Okay.

Um just thinking all the new folks right.

Hopefully, you have enough people who were here.

Okay.

I second.

Okay.

Now minutes approved.

Now minutes approved.

Thank you.

And actually, can we hear from our staff member about she didn't get to do any problem?

Oh my goodness.

Okay, let's um just one moment.

Let's go through the role for the minutes, and then we'll swing back.

Yeah, thank you.

Do we have to do that?

Oh, right, sorry.

Uh I'll start with the chair.

Terry Lumson.

Yes.

Steve Lower.

Yes.

Sally Shrink.

Epstein.

Joe Cartwright.

Yes.

Paige Lasalski.

I'm sorry, how do you say your last name?

Lysowski.

Okay, that's funny.

Page Lazowski.

Yes.

And Matthew Courton.

Epstein.

Thank you.

And I think that means motion.

Um minutes have been approved.

Awesome.

Um thank you for giving me a little space to remember Robert's rules.

Um, so at this point, I would like to swing back around to catch one final introduction.

I'm Jess.

Um, I work in the parks and rec department as an admin.

Um, I'm typically not going to be the person that's here for you.

On Hodge, she is out this week.

So typically she will be the person over here.

I have done this in the past a few times.

But yeah, so I'm covering tonight.

But yeah, I'm an admin over at Story Mill, so I handle more of the recreation and aquatic side, and on Hods are admin for forestry cemetery and parks.

So she handles this board.

I'm originally from Pennsylvania.

I after I graduated college, I worked in Yelston National Park as my first job out of school.

Fell in love with it.

It was seasonal work, went back and then just went back home, kept coming back out year after year, and then eventually met my now husband in the park.

And then from there we moved up to Bozeman.

So I feel like yeah, once you fall in love with the outdoors out here in Yellowstone, it's hard to leave.

So yeah, originally worked in Yellowstone, then found ourselves up in Bozeman.

Yeah, and I love I went to school for recreation management.

So I'm in that field, and I feel like Yellowstone taught me a lot in now being in this role and working within the community and putting on different events and getting to work at StoryMail, one of, I think, one of our nicest parks, and it gets utilized quite a bit all year round.

It has the great trail all the way up to the M.

So if you're not familiar with that park, uh, it's a great one.

Um, but yeah, that's just a little bit about me.

Thank you so much.

Um now it's time to comment on any non-agenda matters.

Um the comments are from the public.

Um, falling within the scope of the Urban Parks and Forestry Board.

There will also be time in conjunction with each agenda item for public comment relating to that item.

But you may only speak once per topic.

Please note that the board cannot take action on any item which does not appear on the agenda.

All persons addressing the board shall speak in a civil and courteous manner, and members of the audience shall be respectful of others.

Please state your name and state whether you are a resident of the city or a property owning owner within the city in an audible tone of voice for their record and limit your comments to three minutes.

Do we have any public comments?

No public comment online.

Okay, so our next and final agenda item is um our board of ethics training.

Great.

Um, Jess is gonna pull up the slideshow presentation and I'll walk you through it, but really this is conversation-based, so you guys are gonna get a chance to um you know, maybe read some of the slides, and then we just talk through a bunch of scenarios and we decide what parts of our code of ethics are at play and what are the considerations we need to make.

And I guess I would just say this is something we do as a city every year.

Um, it's kind of fun, of course, to get together and talk about these absurd things that you know someone might do.

Um, and really there's no right answer.

Uh it's it's a gray area.

Um, but it's about public perception a lot of times.

Sometimes I think like to think, oh, a jury of my peers would never have an issue about this, but we're trying to stay far away from the perception that there is an issue.

So it's not just am I super guilty and is this unreasonable?

It's like you're supposed to hold yourself to a higher standard.

Of course, as a city employee, it's a little different.

I hope you guys can um remain more um anonymity in community that sometimes the you know, especially our commissioners will be known.

But um, yeah, so we'll kick off and um just the background here is that you know there's a section of our city code that talks about our ethics policy.

So if there is anything that comes up, there's a spot um, you know, there's a link through the city code where you can go and kind of read through whether it's something you specifically are dealing with or you're noticing as we're diving into needy topics, who's weighing in, who's not, that kind of thing.

Um, and then also keep in mind, you know, Mitch and I and the city attorneys are here if you ever have a question.

And um a good example is Terry mentioned she's on Sunrise Rotary.

Um, they've received parks grants um while she was on our board, and so she abstained from voting on that, you know, that kind of thing, not influencing financially.

So that's one of the big tenets of this code is the use of public office for private gain.

Um, so are you here trying to influence decisions that might directly benefit your organization?

It's an interesting thing when you do work that benefits the community, right?

We all get to experience parks and trails and good rec programming.

So I find that in some sometimes in my work, like we're out being relational.

And I, in fact, we've been joking last year because we're doing this big um the cattail corridor trail is in my subdivision.

And um, so I try to be very upfront about why is why are we focusing on this corridor and you know, investing in this area.

It was started before I moved there.

So maybe I moved there because I started to learn how awesome the parks are.

Um, but yeah, so just keeping that in mind, and um, you know, we're acting in your official capacity on matters which is off with the official has a private financial interest, clearly separate from that of the general public, um, the acceptance of gifts and other things of value, um, acting in a private capacity on matters dealt with as a public official, um the use of confidential information, all these things um would fall under this heading of using your office for um private gain.

And then the other point there they wanted to emphasize.

Sorry, I'm not seeing the full slide here.

Um, just that yeah, we have to do this annual training, and we're brushing up on our skills.

Um our purpose and our expectations, setting forth the standards of ethical conduct, having this in-person um discussion because it's a gray area.

There's not always a 100% right or wrong um answer, but we are required to establish these standards and guidelines for conduct and provide annual training.

Let's see if we can go to the next slide.

I kind of skipped past some of this.

Sorry.

Okay, the one that says overview.

Okay.

Um, best practice for local government in Montana.

Um, I think this is a lot of repeat.

They have a uh group of staff that are are um work on these ethics programs and they have a new goal trying to integrate it more throughout the year instead of just the one time.

So um maybe we'll see some of that.

Um, and then of course, facilitating the training helps me, you know, get a little more familiar with where exactly all this stuff lives.

Um and that, yeah, this is state law and our local laws that we're following here.

Um I got into a little of this.

Why are we doing this in person?

You know, it's more relatable.

We're talking about public perception.

Um, there's no test, so right, just keep that in the back of your mind.

And then um, as a reminder, you know, this presentation.

Um we can share it out just so you have all these resources at hand, but you have a lot of staff to help you employee handbook, administrative orders, Montana code.

Um, the city has a purchasing policy that is also something it sets our rules for when we go out to procure contracts and purchase things, you know, we have to have so many um quotes to show that we went with the you know, the cheapest option when all things are comparable, that kind of thing, um different levels of expense, like we can purchase things at director um approval up to a certain threshold over 80,000, then it goes on committee, you know, commission consent, that kind of thing.

Um so there's those types of guidelines too.

Um so we'll get started, and I'm gonna run this just like they do for um staff.

So I'm gonna have you guys read the slide just to put you in the shoes and um dive in.

And then we'll have a little discussion about which parts of the code might be pertinent, and I have the answers.

So I won't hold out too long.

I think we'll be out of here round seven.

So if you don't mind, I'll start with Steve, and will you read this first scenario?

You want me to read it up?

Yes, please.

Yes.

All right.

I thought you were just putting me on the spot.

I know you read it, and then we'll be test.

Yes.

A member of the tax increment financing board owns a restaurant in a district and is very invested in improving the district for both their business and Bozeman in general.

They are diligent about filling out their financial disclosure form each year and notes the property or notes the business and property interests on the form.

A developer recently brought before the board a proposal for a hotel in the adjacent unused lot.

The board member very excited about the hotel as they had some conversations with the owners and expects the two to share some parking facilities.

The hotel will bring in customers for them.

They don't mention this at the board meeting because there is no direct business interest in the project.

And since their form is on file, staff can bring it up if they think it's a conflict.

The board member enthusiastically approves the hotel.

What are the ethical considerations?

Okay, does anybody have ideas?

And I know you're not like students of our city code, so it says the hotel will bring in customers for them, and then it also says there's no direct business interest.

Their benefit their business will benefit from having the hotel by increased customers.

As well as the parking facilities.

So that's an easy one.

Yep, great.

So you got it.

You said you mentioned the conflict of interest, and that's a specific issue.

And then noting the financial disclosure statement.

I don't know that you all have to do that, but sta uh city employees every year have to scan through the list of vendors that we work with and know if we have any familial relationship to anyone that we're contracting with as a city.

So okay, next I'll have Sally read.

Oh, I'm so I'm totally doing it.

You're keeping up.

Um I'm watching on my screen so I can see the notes, but I so sorry, passing it over to Sally.

An active member of the Urban Parks and Forestry Board and vehemently poses a proposed change to the tree maintenance district.

The subject has been discussed at the board a number of times, and while a few members agree with them, the majority of the board supports the change to the district.

The board member feels like their voice isn't being heard.

So they submit the public comment to the city commission and write a letter to the chronicle expressing their concerns about the district, acknowledging the experience with the project given their membership on the UPF board.

They make sure to include on behalf of the UPF in the letters to reinforce their legitimate opinion, and so the others will take their opinion seriously.

What are the ethical considerations?

I don't think you can one person cannot speak on behalf of the UPF board.

Especially when they have a minority opinion.

Does it matter if it's minority or majority opinion?

I don't think you question.

Can you speak on the behalf of the UPF board if you have the majority opinion?

No.

Yeah.

So to me, um, we are all individuals on this board.

And that was part of the rationale for the introductions is to kind of showcase the parts of town in our experiences that are different.

Um so in this situation, the person could totally give their um citizen opinion publicly, but as a representative, none of us can do that.

Yep, and then um the specifics here too.

I'm not sure if you have more information on this one, but I can look it up.

They're really talking, they focus on the definition of officials in our code, which I can look up really quick, but then also there's a specific resolution about how you have a collective voice.

You know, there's there may be a time, and I think this has occurred when we were going through the PRAP plan, for example, like the board could decide they want to write a letter collectively to the city or to the city commissioners.

You could do that as an action item and then choose to do that, but right, it would be a collective thing.

So really quick, I'm gonna look up definitions and officials.

Officials means all officers and members of the city's agency, whether elected or appointed, whether paid or unpaid, whether permanent, temporary, or alternate, and that are not employees.

So I think it's just pointing out that you're an official of the city.

I think the only time you can represent that you are a UPF board member is at the board meeting.

Um as a private citizen, you can say whatever you want, but the only time to act in the capacity of the board member is at a board meeting advertised and open to the public.

Yeah, and I think um something I've heard people do is during disclosures, you know, if you end up having a discussion because you run into somebody right, uh, you can have you can kind of have a right a discussion with somebody that might be someone we're gonna work with on a project or something like that.

You can you can have a discussion as long as you're not right trying to convince them one way or the other, or they're not trying to convince you, you know, that you just then you can disclose that at the next meeting.

Um I just added so um a lot of the other advisory boards members will come and give public comment at a city commission meeting, and whether it has to do with work of your board or not, it's always best practice to disclose that you are a member of a board and then say you're speaking on behalf of yourself.

So just disclose and clarify.

One other thing I'll mention with this.

We have a board of seven now, right?

Three.

Yes.

So I think if four of us are together at any time, we have a quorum of the board, and that is actually a bad thing.

So um unless it's board meeting, and we need four.

Um so if you see that happening, um, it is basically ethical just to say bye, just so we don't have a quorum.

If you read into it, one of each other at the grocery store, whatever, there's no core.

But it's the it's that magic number of four.

Yeah, great.

Okay, next one.

Thanks.

Okay, um turn over to Terry.

The chair of the downtown urban renewal board handles setting the agendas.

They also own a hotel in the district.

Recently, the agendas have been pretty full of new activity in the district, so they want to prioritize retail and food service projects as they view that as a gap to fill with new development.

A proposed hotel has asked the board to be considered for financial incentives.

The chair knows that this level of request needs to be approved by the downtown urban renewal board, and does not go before the city commission, but doesn't want to put it on the agenda as their hotel is covering the needs of the district at the moment.

They didn't get any incentives when building their hotel.

So if they are in a time crunch, they can proceed without the incentives.

The chair informed the applicant, the board is focusing on other priorities and that the request will not be considered at this time.

What are the ethical considerations?

I'm just gonna say it is um potentially an abuse of the position that they hold.

So if somebody has a situation like this, does it default just have to go up for consideration by the board to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest?

Or I guess there is a conflict of interest, but to avoid the hotel saying that they were unfairly squashed.

Yeah, I don't know the technical terms.

I'm gonna skip forward to the um the next slide, Jess.

Um apparently there's something in Montana Code annotated, um, ethical requirements for public officers and public employees.

Like it would be different if the if the board collectively at the beginning of the year decided their work plan and they said this is our agendas and this is how we're moving in this through, and this type of thing isn't a priority.

But it sounds like if it's an official application to the city, it's a mandatory thing that we have to review.

So I mean, the staff wouldn't let this be pushed aside.

So we have that, but yeah, definitely an issue.

Umproper governmental action, I'll read that, and then financial interest, of course, is obvious, but um I wanted to look at what they specifically call improper government action.

Um it's quite long.

Um includes any action taken by an official or employee during the performance of their duties, regardless of whether the action is within the scope of employees' employment or the officers' duties, and that violates the standards of conduct, violates the standards of Montana Code, is intended to harass, intimidate, or retaliate against others, violates a fiduciary duty, creates a substantial or specific danger, of course.

Umproper governmental action includes excludes personnel actions, a properly authorized city program or budgetary expenditure does not become an improper governmental action because a reporting person dissents from or disagrees with the city policy or decision.

Um that's some of the way that issue is rounded out.

Um it's pretty heady.

I don't think we get into a lot of that, luckily here, because we're not dealing with development or economic incentives and things like that.

Um again, there's yeah, there's that's kind of one of the mainstays of what we do is there's really not a lot of financial interest or benefit allowed within you know using parkland for for public or for individual gain is a bit flat out, not allowed.

So maybe if you guys like decided that the Arbor Day planting had to be right in front of your house.

I don't know.

Yeah, right, exactly.

Like that, this is my subdivision, it'll bring up my property values.

Yeah.

Um really really fast.

I think another link that I have to that last one is when we get public comments, um arguing with the person giving public comment as a board member is prop potentially crossing that line.

Um big time.

Right.

Yeah, fair.

Okay, Joe, next.

A member of the community development board also works for a local nonprofit that helps to coordinate placement of low-income individuals in affordable housing.

They're happy that their involvement on the board can help facilitate a community need their job also addresses.

Since they are an expert in the area, they make sure that developers coming before the CDB are fully aware of the different resources in the community and gets frustrated when someone asks for an incentive when they haven't gone through all the steps to minimize development costs.

They vote no on these projects since there are so many local organizations that could also benefit from a developer utilizing their resources and only votes yes on projects that maximize these resources.

What are the ethical considerations?

I I can't tell whether this person's just using their knowledge and insight from their work experience, or if it's a conflict.

Yeah, so I think um they are the the community development board acts as the zoning commission and they have like more power over development than other boards, and so this person could potentially affect the outcome of this applicant developer receiving certain incentives.

And in this instance, they're using a subjective criteria to evaluate that.

If it needs to be codified or set out in a process that in order to get this incentive, they must apply for these resources they're talking about.

If that if that's a criteria for an approval, that has to be written somewhere.

This person can't just say I don't like this because they haven't done what I think they should do, is basically the yeah, that makes sense.

And that would be that financial interest potentially if the organization they work for could be the recipient of the money, and they're saying, Oh, well, this should I don't want to give it to these guys or something.

Um, and then it also mentions a part of our ethics handbook, and I oh I I do have some notes on this.

Um it's about impartiality.

Section six six of the ethics handbook states that officials must discharge their duties impartially and fairly.

As a decision maker, all board members must consider the information before them with each application and not apply standards not expressly given by law.

Okay.

Next, we have a scenario about the transportation board.

Paige.

The transportation board is working to coordinate an expansion to the downtown parking garage.

This week the board is considering the construction contract for the garage, which includes as a soap contractor an architecture firm for which a member of the board's daughter works.

The member wasn't sure if approving the contract would show favoritism to a relative, so they emailed the chair of the board to let them know of the relationship.

The chair thanked the member for letting them know.

When the board got to the item, the member did not disclose the conflict since they already did since the relationship since the relation was once removed from the contract before them, they voted to approve the contract.

What are the ethical considerations?

I think he has to abstain.

There's a clear conflict.

Yeah, and I I would think disclosures needs to happen during the meeting, not in an email to the chair.

I think that brings up a good point.

Communication between board members, I don't think counts as disclosure.

I think it has to be at the public meeting.

And then, like you, like you said, disclosed and then abstain.

And what is that called when it's a member of your family that um nepotes?

Right, exactly.

Um, so yeah, the next slide.

Uh, of course, in Montana code annotated nepotism is defined, and that's something we avoid.

Um, and then the conflict of interest um issue and um disclosure.

It's the board members' responsibility to declose disclose it at a public meeting, knowing of the conflict, the chair should also bring it up since the member failed to do so.

So um, how far does nepotism go?

I'll I think uh I think it's your immediate family.

Um, and so from what I recall um it's actually kind of a low bar in a way, right?

Your your spouse or your children, and I don't know that it I think it includes parents and siblings.

Oh, okay, yeah.

So first um first degree of separation, yeah.

And I think another big thing to remember here is like in our city code, it talks about the appearance of a conflict of interest.

So the way I tend to operate personally is disclose everything always, whether it's a ends up being an actual conflict of interest or not, because then you're just sanitizing it, you're putting it out there so nobody can accuse.

Well, I think, yeah, I have one that I can relate to on that too, is the perception, and um I've been in city planning for several years, and um I have architecture in my own personal background and interest.

Um, so my friends are designers and and architects and engineers, right?

And so I have worked with them and I have hired them, but I don't always hire them.

I hire, I try to have a diversity of people that I'm working with, right?

So I hire different landscape architects and um designers and spread the love, right?

And um, and then also, of course, over certain thresholds, we do a request for proposals.

There's a team of people that come up with criteria, and a team of people that um vote on the answers.

And there have been times where I've recused myself because I felt like I knew the team too um too well and didn't feel like I could be impartial.

So yeah, that's a scenario that it might not be specifically defined as nepotism, but it just feels like I have too much control over that.

So okay, well, thank you so much.

Um I'm not an expert on these uh this part of the code, and um but you know, yeah, in summary we talked about this.

It's gray area, and we're trying to avoid you know any issue.

And so if you see something coming up, feel free to reach out.

Um a lot of times I think what I've seen is that the board members are being too cautious, and our legal will say, I think you're weighing, you know, you're you're you have professional knowledge here, and that's actually what is happening, and you're okay to weigh in, right?

Um and so it's good to play it safe, yeah.

Um so again, there's a lot of resources for you to reach out to, and um if it is ever anything where you don't feel like you can directly communicate with staff, you can go right to legal, and that is fine with us.

So thank you so much.

We're five minutes too, so we met our target.

Um does anybody have any follow-up questions or anything regarding this agenda item?

Okay, great.

Um, so I uh this board generally meets the fourth Thursday of the month from 6 to 8 p.m.

Um if you want to plug that on your calendars.

Um at this time, I do we would like to adjourn the meeting.

So I don't have the agenda in front of me, so I assume it's the last thing.

Sounds great, thank you.

Do you have a gavel?

Um, great, awesome.

Um we don't think we can call a comment when there's boom.